The Change
by Cke1st
Summary: The events of HTTYD (movie) as seen from Stormfly's perspective. 5 short chapters. My first submission.
1. Chapter 1

The Change, chapter 1

I hear their voices. They will open the doors soon, and I will fight them. There is nothing else I can do. I tried to ignore them once, and they pricked me with spears until I fought. I hate them.

The door opens. I rush out. They have set up the walls this time. Good; when I am on the walls, they cannot hurt me. I can choose my moment to strike.

There are six of them. The small one is not paying attention. I fire! My aim is off; I destroy his weapon, but he is unharmed. I chase him across several walls, but he is fast and eludes me. A big one comes into view. This one gets my tail spines. This time, I do not miss, but his shield saves him. I descend to ground level.

Two thin ones appear, and then they disappear. Where have they gone? I wait; they always reappear if I wait a moment. I hear their voices directly in front of me. I turn and see them. They fight each other and ignore me! If they want to make it easy for me, I will not disappoint them. I fire! They separate, and my blast goes between them. My aim was never this bad before. It must be from lack of practice. I stalk them, trying to smell them if I cannot see them.

The small one falls in front of me. I'm not ready to fire yet, so I charge at him. One quick bite, and it will be over. It would feel so good just to hurt one of them! He scrambles away. Two others jump in front of me. The stocky one throws his weapon. I don't have to dodge it; his aim is even worse than mine. I laugh at him – the ultimate revenge! Now my fire is ready. I fire! The stocky one dodges it and runs. I chase him.

He disappears around the corner; the one with the armor is still in front of me. I chase her on the walls, knocking most of them down as I go. It feels good to destroy something a human made. At last, I pounce, but I overshoot and crash into the walls. By the time I free myself, she is ready, and strikes me hard with her weapon. I cannot take another hit like that. At least it drew no blood.

I am dizzy from the blow. The large one with the wooden leg prods me back into the cell. The door closes. It is dark and quiet, and cramped and stifling. I was meant to fly, not to be caged! I hate the humans.


	2. Chapter 2

The Change, chapter 2

I hear their voices. They will open the doors soon, and I will fight them. Just to be free of that tiny dark cell, to see the sun and breathe the air for a few minutes, is worth the pain of fighting them. I always lose, but I will try. I hate them.

The door opens. I rush out. There are no walls this time. I must fight in the open ring.

There are six of them. They do not fight together, but as individuals. I quickly flame the big one. He stops it with his shield, but then leaves the ring. What wouldn't I give for a chance to leave the ring! The stocky one runs up behind me. I don't have to use my spines; a simple lash of my tail knocks him down and splinters his shield.

The two thin ones are beating on their shields, ruining my vision. Then they stop, and fight with each other. They pose no threat to me, so I ignore them. The one with the armor throws her weapon at me. I see it coming and easily knock it aside with my nose. I charge at her; she dodges aside. Now I am headed straight at the small one. He doesn't even try to dodge me!

Suddenly he disappears. When I can see him again, he is rubbing my neck and face in a way I've never felt before. It is the first good feeling I've felt since before they captured me. I hear the one with the armor shouting, see her rushing at me, but somehow I cannot move. The small one reaches under my chin...

I don't remember how they got me back into my cell. But it's dark and quiet, and cramped and stifling. I was meant to fly, not to be caged! I hate the humans. Except maybe the small one; he was kind.


	3. Chapter 3

The Change, chapter 3

I hear their voices. They will open the doors soon, and I will fight them. Again they will show how weak they are, and somehow they will defeat me again. I hate them.

This time, the voices are different. I just hear one voice near the door. It is not the large one with the wooden leg. I think it is the small one. He sounds different from all the others.

The door opens. I rush out, but not blindly. There are no walls, and the humans have no weapons. What does this mean? I stop and look at the small one behind me. He speaks kindly and strokes my tail. I have never known kindness before. I cannot hate this one. I do not attack.

He opens the other doors. For the first time since they captured me, I see other dragons – a rock dragon, a two-necked dragon, and a fire dragon. The small one peacefully leads them all out of their cells. They do not attack us, and we do not attack them. We all watch the humans to see what they will do.

I try to understand what they are saying. The big one climbs onto the rock dragon. Do they want to ride us? Is this some new torment they have invented? But the small one is kind to all of us. The others appear to do as he says. Each human chooses a dragon to ride.

The small one wants to ride me! I will let him do that. But so does the one with the armor. I hate her. I think I hate her. I used to hate her. She is also acting kind, and she has no weapon. Something has changed here. I need to know what has happened. I will not find out unless I cooperate with these humans.

Now they do something I have long dreamed of seeing. They open the door and leave it open. We are being set free! Yet not really free; we each carry a human, and I carry two. Through the narrow chute, up the ramp to ground level, a quick run off the cliff, and – I am flying. I am _flying_! I have not flown since they captured me. I never used to think of flight as something to be enjoyed. Now, it is the sweetest joy I ever imagined. I want to spin and twist and loop and dive, but I fear the small one would fall off.

There is no question where we will go. Home. Home to our cave, and the other dragons. And the giant dragon that eats us if we do not feed it. I think I hate that dragon even more than the humans, because humans don't understand dragons, but another dragon should understand. The giant does not understand. I hate him.


	4. Chapter 4

The Change, chapter 4

We find our island in the fog. The giant dragon has somehow gotten out of the cave, and is attacking a great crowd of the humans. They are too small; they cannot hurt it. I hear the growls of the other dragons beside me; they hate the giant too. The rock dragon spits his fire from a great distance, and hits the giant in the head.

We circle for a moment; then the others attack the giant, while the small one guides me over the burning human ships, looking for something. I can hardly believe it – one of the ships has the night dragon on it, chained in place! We almost never see the night dragon. How could the humans ever have caught him? The small one jumps off me and tries to help him.

Now, only the one with the armor rides me. She is not cruel or hard or loud like she was before. I could easily throw her off and be free, but I will not do that, not yet. The others are trying to hurt the giant. I want to hurt that dragon so badly! I will let the one with the armor ride me for now.

We follow the two-necked dragon, which has two riders already. A third human jumps off the giant's head – how did he get there? – onto the two-neck. We turn away... but I cannot escape! The giant is sucking me in! I flap with all my strength, I scream in terror, I can't get away –

And the night dragon dives and shoots his fire into the giant's mouth. It closes its jaws and I fly free. But the one with the armor falls off! There is nothing I can do to save her. Somehow, the night dragon catches her and brings her to the ground.

It has been so long since I flew, my wings are tired. I land near the humans. Most of them carry weapons, but they do not attack. They are all watching the giant chasing the night dragon with the small one on his back. They zoom up into the clouds. We hear the giant roar; we see flashes of fire. Suddenly they dive straight down again. The giant cannot stop; it hits the ground, and its fires explode in one enormous blast.

Now, I am truly free. I can go anywhere I want. No giant dragon will ever again order me to steal food and risk death. No human will ever cage me or strike at me with his weapons again. All I have to do is fly away.

I will stay, for now.

Something is wrong. The humans have found the night dragon. Where is the small one who rode him, the one who is so kind? I can tell that the humans are very sad. The one with the armor... I sense her sadness most of all. Now I am sad as well.

And, just as suddenly, the mood changes. The night dragon opens his wings – there is the small one! He lives! The humans are very happy now; they must love the small one, too. We dragons add our voices to the celebration. None of the humans threatens us. Yes, something has changed. Somehow, we do not hate each other any more.


	5. Chapter 5

The Change, chapter 5

It has been a week since the giant dragon died. The humans rode their ships back to their town. I followed them, and I could give no good reason why. That town is where I was captured; that is where I was tormented over and over in their fighting ring. Why would I ever want to go back there? Yet I went there willingly.

The one with the armor kept seeking me out. She fed me fish, and rubbed my neck. It wasn't as good as the small one's touch, but she is very kind now. Perhaps I spent too much time hating; I have run out of hate. I began to enjoy her company. Sometimes I would fly out to sea, or up to the hills, but I always came back. During all those years in captivity, being free was all I wanted. Now, freedom is mine for the taking. But a kind touch and a kind word from this human is even better.

She uses a word, "Astrid," for herself, and another word, "Stormfly," when she talks to me. I don't understand the concept of a name, but when she says "Stormfly," I come to her, and that makes her happy. I like making her happy. She flies on my back now and then. We are learning to understand each other and work together. The other dragons are also learning to live with their humans. We all walk the streets of the human town, unafraid.

Suddenly I can tell that she is very, very happy. The small one appears! I have not seen him since the battle. My Astrid rushes at him; for a moment, she seems to fight him. But no, they are happy together. The night dragon appears, too.

My Astrid and I will fly together today. Other dragons fly with us; each one willingly carries his favorite human. I never imagined that flying with a human could be better than flying alone. I do not understand how everything changed. But I love my human.


End file.
